During the first hours of his second term, President Donald Trump staged a daring daylight raid on the Fourteenth Amendment. Executive Order 14160, signed on January 20 of this year, denies citizenship to the US-born children of undocumented immigrants. While the order only applies to babies born from that point onward, it opens the door to stripping millions of American adults of citizenship.

But the language of the Fourteenth Amendment leaves little ambiguity that might justify this maneuver. Its first sentence reads, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” The exceptions contained in the amendment are exceedingly narrow, only applying to people who enjoy immunity from American laws, such as diplomats and their children. Needless to say, neither unauthorized immigrants nor their children have ever benefited from any such immunity — nor does the Trump administration propose to grant it to them now. If they break laws, including laws having nothing to do with immigration, they’re prosecuted and imprisoned like any-one else.

The text of Trump’s executive order, however, simply asserts that children whose parents are undocumented aren’t “subject to the jurisdiction of the United States,” without making any real attempt to square this circle. Even so, as of the time of this writing, the court battle over Trump’s executive order is ongoing.